Re-imaging women’s empowerment and resistance in nollywood cinema: examining tongues of fire and wives on strike

Much as the goal of feminist film critics is to press for change by advocating the reconstruction of (mis)representations of female power and femininity in cinema, the onus lies on female and feminist filmmakers to create feminist consciousness amongst viewers on the dangers of stereotypes of powerlessness and denigrating identity that downplay woman’s true strength and identity. Woman’s emotional, sexual and physical power has often been ironically misconstrued with identities of the voiceless and powerless. Thus, the argument to deconstruct the mundane stereotype and re-image the woman’s identity through the woman’s film, as counter cinema, puts feminist filmmakers at a vantage position to tell women’s stories from a woman’s point of view. This desire to correct the (mis)representations of women in cinema is derived from the notion that women will better tell their own stories themselves. However, some male filmmakers have consciously or inadvertently aligned with this feminist ideology in co-creating women’s empowerment in cinema by projecting female characters with admirable courage, power, resistance, and enduring resilienc